Cover Story
Are print consumables consuming your profits? The keys to success are proactive press maintenance, understanding the overall value of consumables in your offset production processes, and managing costs while maintaining print quality. You’ve likely heard the cliché “if it isn't broken, don't fix it.” This might be the norm in other industries, but in offset printing, it’s a recipe for future disaster. Today’s offset presses are masterpieces of complex technology that have genuinely earned the characterization “workhorses.” Your press might be running just fine today, but unless you perform regular, proactive maintenance checks, it could cost you thousands of dollars in downtime tomorrow. Proactive maintenance checks are pre-emptive strategies designed to eliminate every possible repair that might adversely affect print quality, reduce press speed, increase waste and makeready times, require additional staffing, and so on. If these issues remain unchecked as you meet your hectic day-to-day deadlines, then you’re courting disaster.
Maintenance and repairs Most successful printers have established a proactive, preventative maintenance program – and they stick to it. Some even train pressroom employees in all aspects of hardware maintenance, establish an on-site spare parts and consumables inventory, institute procedures where repairs are identified quickly, and develop a daily maintenance log of jobs in progress. This log should contain not just production analytics like counts, waste and makeready times, but also alerts on delaying factors such as web breaks, press breakdowns and slowdowns.
@graphicarts
Art Andrews, owner of Arcade Printing in Toronto, whose main press is an RMGT offset from Ryobi, echoed those comments – but added that press operators should also be involved in the buying decisions of consumables. “I leave many of the purchasing decisions regarding consumables, including inks and plate sourcing, to my experienced frontline press operators who’ve had decades of experience with different products and suppliers. They know what works best on-press. For us, repairs are still the most costly issues. So involving press operators in decision-making and relying on their expertise has kept those costs low. Another strategy that has been successful for us is the management of waste. For example, we’ve been selling endof-life printing plates for scrap for over 40 years. Even small day-to-day costsaving strategies like that certainly add up at the end of the year,” he added. Here’s a brief update on pressroom consumables and issues that affect production and profits.
Pressroom chemicals “Preventative and scheduled maintenance are the key to achieving the maximum benefits from your fountain solution system especially when it comes to having well maintained water tank(s), water lines, water pans and rollers by deglazing them on a regular basis,” said Mike Thibault, Vice President of Technical Services at Unigraph International, Canada’s
leading pressroom chemical manufacturer. “These can affect ink/water balance, drying times, colour consistency and the ability to have repeatable, predictable results on press. Regular preventative maintenance can be integrated into a weekly schedule without affecting production deadlines. The costs are small compared to the enormous gains in productivity,” he added. Daily monitoring of the pH, conductivity and Brix are essential to understanding how well your press chemistry is performing. Always start with a fresh mix and take those values. As the days and week go on, it’s normal to have a rise in all three. As you do this on a consistent basis, the press operator will be able to determine how well the chemistry is working and take action accordingly. Understanding how certain inks and stocks affect the chemistry is essential in order to have the most stability on press. Pressroom chemicals are essential to the efficient running of an offset press. These can include fountain solutions and additives, alcohol replacements, press wash-up products (including roller and blanket washes) silicones (for heatset web presses) and specialty products such as roller deglazers, plate cleaners, chrome roller cleaners/desensitizers and more. This brings us to our next and often overlooked factor – cost per printed page. “If you buy everything on up-front price without a guarantee of on-press performance, you’re playing a risky game,” Thibault pointed out. “For example, in some cases just changing to a premium fountain solution and alcohol replacement can lower a printer’s ink bill by 5% to 10%, while also reducing paper waste. As well, significant savings on filters for the water system can result. Our products reduce cost per page, improve print quality and provide greater stability on press.
GRAPHIC ARTS MAGAZINE | Spring 2021 | 11
